Darren Espanto immediately captured our hearts with his charming cuteness and astonishing vocal prowess when he joined the inaugural season of The Voice Kids in 2014. Through the years, he’s able to develop his other talents aside from singing and explore other opportunities, which include dancing, hosting, and acting.
From being one of the hurados of Tawag ng Tanghalan, he’s given the chance to be one of the guest co-hosts of It’s Showtime, through which he’s able to unleash his inner kakulitan that we don’t usually see on TV. And in this Kapamilya Update feature, let’s look back on some of his hilarious “bardagulan” moments with Vice Ganda that show what happens when the humor of a Gen X and a Gen Z collides.
Let us begin on that instance when the Unkabogable Star poked fun at D’ Total Performer’s favorite duet songs as the latter swung by the noontime show to just say “Hi!” to everyone. She sang a mash-up of “A Whole New World,” which he covered opposite Morissette Amon for the Philippine showing of “Aladdin” in 2019, and “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from the 2018 film “A Star Is Born.”
We also found it funny when Vice jestingly shot down Darren’s comment regarding the statement of the mother of a TNT contender because he was seemingly insinuating that she wasn’t being attentive. In another TNT episode, she couldn’t help but notice how quite painful it was when he gave her a high five, to which Kim Chiu totally agreed. Vice recounted afterwards how he called her “dude” when they randomly bumped into each other somewhere outside ABS-CBN.
The Unkabogable Star once again “mocked” the young heartthrob as he mentioned “yours truly” while promoting his latest film, the 2023 MMFF entry “When I Met You in Tokyo.” Jhong Hilario joined their kulitan by supporting her joke.
For sure, a lot of madlang people found it amusing when their humor jived in an episode of “Expecially For You.” After becoming Vice’s instant dance partner when they did a viral dance challenge on the spot while interviewing that day’s searcher, Darren eventually entertained us when he heeded her request to repeat what he just asked the ex-couple as Vhong Navarro tried his best to enunciate “How long ago was that?”
In another episode, the Unkabogable Star and co-hosts Kim and Vhong ragged on Darren when he corrected their “math” during an interview with the “Expecially For You” ex-couple. As the searchers mention that it’s been around a decade since they broke up, he rectified it by saying that it’s just nine. The It’s Showtime hosts made fun of him and asked him to be more lenient since 2024 was only a few days away.
And lastly, as Darren expressed his excitement to start becoming a regular on the program, Vice joked that they’re actually looking for an additional writer and not a new co-host. He then teased Vice about having her own block screening for his movie “When I Met You In Tokyo,” to which the Unkabogable Star retorted that it would be for his 2011 blockbuster flick “The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin”.
Are you looking forward as us to seeing more Darren and Vice interactions on It’s Showtime? Well, you better not miss an episode, Mondays to Saturdays at noontime, on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, A2Z, and TV5.